Is it better to pay in full 4 a charged off credit card than partial payment? will it affect your report diff?

Question

differently? will a partial payment stay longer on your credit report than paid in full 4 a chargeoff or is it both the same 7 yrs regardless?

Answer 1

Until you pay in full it will be on your credit report as an open loss. Once you pay in full the company can update with the credit bureaus that you had a charge off, but it is now paid off and most places will not even look at that too poorly on a credit report. It just shows you may have made a mistake but are willing to pay. Both will be gone in 7 years regardless, unless because you still owe money they send the matter to a new collector, and then that can appear on your credit report. It depends on if you plan on needing to rely on your credit in the mean time, or are willing to wait it out I guess.

Answer 2

The farther the debt was in the past, the better for you. However, a Paid debt, even if very late, is far better than an unpaid debt.

The rest is open to negotiation.

Has the credit card bank sold the debt to a collection agency yet? How old is the debt? The older the debt, and if it's been sold, the better your chances.

If you want to get this taken care of, contact the current owner of the debt. Tell them you'd like to get this settled, but can't afford to pay 100%. Start negotiating. The older the debt, the less they'll generally accept. However, under no circumstances, send any payment or make any promises, until you have it in writing, that if you agree to pay X amount, the debt will be considered PAID IN FULL. Also the written agreement should say the account will be marked PAID and closed on all 3 credit bureaus.

As long as you aren't in urgent need to fix your credit score, you have the power. Make sure you get a deal you can live with. Remember, a credit card is an unsecured debt, and they can't do anything more than they've already done to harm you.

Go get'em.

Answer 3

Echo is correct.

The other responders need to research their answers, as the simply don't know what they are talking about when it comes to debt reporting.

The time a negative item can stay on your credit report is 7 years, beginning from the day of the delinquency. PERIOD!

Selling the debt does NOT restart the reporting period. Making a payment doesn't do it. Any attempt by the collection agent to extend this period is called "re-aging" and is illegal under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. You can sue them for $1000 if you catch them doing it!

Clear enough?

And as Echo states....when you pay off your debt, the creditor MAY change the listing to read "paid"...but it will still have notes about being in collection, or late payments.

This is STILL a negative report, and it will have a bad effect on your credit report. This nonsense about it looking better is silly! Would you rather be kicked in the head, or kicked in the butt! They both hurt!

So why would you pay off an old debt if it's not going to help out your credit report? What you need to do is negotiate with the collection agency. Tell them in exchange for paying the bill, they must agree IN WRITING to delete the entry from your report.

Otherwise, you will still have bad credit, but now you are broke too!

Answer 4

Everything on your credit report is there for at least 7 years. Be it a charge off or closed account in good standing. If you are going to pay it off, try to pay it in full. You can always call the company and ask that you "settle" the account. That way you will pay cents on the dollar, an example would be for every dollar that you owe you would pay 75 cents. Then ask that the company send something to the credit bureau that you satisfied the charge off. It does work and it does help your credit report. And don't forget that if you are buying a house they can go back 10 years on your report. But you can also explain that you were having a difficult time at a certain period and that you have cleared that up and it won't happen again. Be careful. Having at least halfway decent credit is sooooo important.

Answer 5

It's not much better to have a paid charge off rather than an unpaid charge off. And yes it is 7 years from the time you first became 30 days late and never brought the account current leading to the charge off.

DO NOT SPEAK TO COLLECTION AGENCY'S ON THE PHONE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They will only skew your words around and if you come to any type of agreement, surpriseeeeeeee, they suddenly have amnesia and will not do as they had agreed. Also, they may pick some little, what you think is an innocent remark made by you, and suddenly you owe more money.

Do everything in writing and send it certified mail return receipt.

First thing you need to do is to find out the statute of limitations (SOL) in your state.

Then, if you are out of SOL, send them a debt validation letter and after you receive something back or 35 days later, send them a SOL letter. Which basically tells them to get lost. And dispute with the credit bureaus after sending the debt validation letter.

If you are still in SOL and you want to pay, send them a debt validation letter than a pay for delete letter. And dispute with the credit bureaus after sending the debt validation letter.

In your pay for delete letter you should request:
To pay a percentage of the debt and it should be considered paid in full.
That they will delete anything they have placed on your reports after receiving payment.
That they will not continue to collect the debt
That they will not sell the debt or the remaining portion of the debt.

Check out the forums in the site I've listed. You will find links to your states SOL plus quite alot of other good info.

Answer 6

It really depends...

There is really a catch 22 when you pay charged off bills. Once you make any action on that account, they can (and probably will) report it to the credit reporting agencies again. This means, you have another 7 years after that time.

The 7 years applies AFTER they stop reporting your information.

It sounds noble to pay off that debt, and probably is. However, you could be screwing yourself. The best thing that will happen when you pay that debt is; the report will still show as a charge off and be reported as a charge off, but it may say "PAID" next to it. That word "PAID" doesn't change your credit score.

Credit reports and reporting is a scam, unfortunately. The companies have put us into a bind using our need against us and then punishing us repeatedly for it.

Answer 7

you purely favor to look ahead to the bill then pay it off . see you later as they acquire in time it is all that concerns. Its once you dont pay or make a late fee it alters your score. also dont have too many charge playing cards ,dont sign up for a card except you want to apply it .The extra you stick with for the added danger you've of being rejected and this can decrease you score. I easily have labored for 2 mastercard organizations.